Bread Dough

UPDATED: December 27th 2013

This blog post was originally published back in April 2011, and I thought it was time for an update since the growing nefarious trend of Sevilla tapas bars charging for bread and “service” continues to grow.

It started off small a few years ago, say charging 50 cents for your typical dried-out pre-sliced vienna with a tiny package of picos. More often these days it’s become a 1 euro charge for a small basket of bread, though recently many bars have taken to charging PER PERSON for bread, which amounts to the same as a service charge.  The other day I was charged 5€ for a handful of olives, three slices of bread and a packet of picos because there were five people in my group. Scandalous.

What really irks is stopping off somewhere for a quick tapa and a beer and then finding out that I’ve been charged an extra 1.50€ for a basket of bread, especially when I hadn’t ordered bread and only nibbled on a couple of picos or used a small chunk of bread to soak up a bit of sauce, and then later I see this bread being “recycled”… ewwww.

Bar owners I’ve spoken to like to think that this is somehow a personal issue of mine and say they never hear complaints from anyone else. Well, I hear plenty of complaints from all kinds of people, including other more scrupulous bar owners. It’s not just the unpleasant surprise when you get your bill, this practice actually theatens the entire tradition of tapas bars. Imagine going on a tapeo with four or five friends, visiting several bars in an evening, something that is very common here, and at every stop you get charged an extra 4-6€ for bread or “service”. At the end of the night you’ve paid up to an extra 20-25€ or more… for nothing.

I also hear the arguments that “everyone else is doing it” and “food and drink costs a lot more in other countries”, the first argument being pathetic and the second? That’s kind of the point. Spain is not other countries. You can’t compare eating out in Sevilla to eating out in New York. At least not yet. Is that really what bar owners here want?

I have no problem when the menu clearly lists items like bread and olives and the price for each (usually 1€). I can decide if I really feel like spending extra for those items and if I order them then of course I am happy to pay. But when these items are brought to the table without being asked for, usually before you’ve had time to even look at the menu, then one naturally assumes that they are compliments of the house. In fact, bars are not allowed to charge for any items brought to the table that haven’t been ordered by the client. Likewise, they are not allowed to charge any sort of “service” charge. So if this happens to you at a bar then you are not obliged to pay.

What does this “service” charge even mean? Most visitors from the UK would assume this means it’s the tip for the waiters, which here it isn’t. The wait staff see none of this. So bars who charge for “service” are actually doing their staff a disservice as they will end up getting fewer tips. One restaurant owner recently told me that the “cubierto” charge was not only for bread but also because he uses cloth napkins which cost more than paper ones. I mean, what next? Extra charges for turning on the air-conditioning in summer? For putting toilet paper in the loos? Imagine how much extra bars could make by charging to use the toilets! Really the opportunities for getting something for nothing are endless. Seriously though, what happened to trying to offer something more or something different to attract more customers, being innovative, instead of suddenly charging for things that have always been included as part of regular service? Five years ago there were no bread or service charges in tapas bars. In my opinion people are getting too greedy and lazy.

I say that tapas bars and restaurants should factor in these fixed costs as they are clearly a part of their day-to-day operating expenses and thus should be easy to figure out. Tacking on extra charges like this just feels, well, tacky.  What do you think?

From Official Rules and Obligations for Bars, Restaurants and Cafeterias

“Los servicios no solicitados no se pueden cobrar. Tampoco se pueden cobrar conceptos como, por ejemplo, reservas, cubierto o mesa.”
“Neither unasked-for services nor such things as reservations, cover or table charges, can be charged for.”

Obligaciones de Bares, Restaurantes y Cafeterías

192 thoughts on “Bread Dough

  1. You could make it known that a bill for service and recycled bread = bad publicity on Twitter and your blog + no more patronage ever. Also handy would be developing an up-to-date list of all bars that charge for service just so everyone knows.

    1. Well, it’s hard to prove “recycling”, though I’ve seen it done in many bars. Since writing this blog post almost two years ago I’ve started putting the bread/service charge on all my tapas bar and restaurant reviews, though I don’t have a separate list of those who charge.

      Again, if they want to charge for bread then that’s their right. But the price needs to be listed on the menu and it shouldn’t be brought to the table unasked for. And it should never be a PER PERSON charge. Per basket is fine. If five people order five baskets of bread at 1€ each then they know that’s the cost.

  2. As an owner of a small bar in Paris we have many challenges to be successful.
    Clients who sit at a table for two hours with one glass of wine and free olives do not pay the bills.
    The basic facts are people do not spend the same amount of money as they did before 2007. What used to be an average of 2 drinks a person has reduced to 1.5 drinks a person while spending the same amount of time in the bar. We have had to change our policies to stay in business.
    Currently with a charcuterie or cheese plate we serve one basket of bread cut to serve, never recycled. The first basket is free with your plate. We charge for additional baskets because people supplement bread for a free meal otherwise.
    Of course any great server or manager will comp bread, peanuts or olives if the clients have ordered several drinks.
    But, lets face it, not everyone is a great customer. We constantly get people coming into the bar and not ordering anything. Last month we had a group of 6 people. Their order was 1Pint, 1 Coke and 2 tap waters. The other two people in the group were “fine” with nothing. Should I charge for tap water? Maybe.
    As an owner I have created a space with a specific type of ambience. As a customer aren’t you obliged to pay for the experience? We would never charge a service charge per person but how can you take up a seat on a busy night and not buy anything? It happens more than you think.

    Here is the costs we have broken down.

    Peanuts, our cost 0,35€ a small plate. We offer one plate at bar. In lounge 1€.
    Olives, our cost 0,45€ a small plate. We offer one plate at bar. In lounge 1€
    Baguette, our cost 0,43€ a basket. We offer 1 basket with Charcuterie/Cheese plate. The second basket 1€
    Also remember a 7% sales tax is included in our price. Starting January 1st 8%.

    We are not trying to make a profit on these once free items but only cover our costs.
    If you have felt cheated at some of these places then I agree with Eugene. Voice your opinion on yelp, twitter, four square, or your blog. Don’t single out the city but rather the individual bar or restaurant.

    As with any restaurant or bar experience it takes word of mouth, luck and adventure to find the gems.

    1. I actually think they should ban bottled water in Paris, and have the bar and café owners put in a filtered water machine, and let them charge for it. (And since the city of Paris is promoting itself as a city going “green”, the city of Paris could give financial incentives or help restaurant/café owners buy the machines at cost.) Some restaurants are already doing this in Paris and in other cities.

      Everyone would win: There would be no unecological plastic bottles, waiters and restaurant staff would not have to carry & lift heavy cases of glass water bottles, restaurants wouldn’t need storage space (always a concern in a tight city, like Paris), restaurants could make a profit off serving water, and the world would be a better place without all those plastic bottles piling up in dumps.

      1. That’s actually a good idea, David. Though to be honest, tap water in Sevilla is pretty good and doesn’t need extra filtering. Málaga on the other hand… you cannot drink the tap water there because it tastes vile.

        Anyhow, I do hope people realise I wasn’t singling out PARIS charging for water. That was an offhand comment to someone who lives there saying he’s been charged for water.

        In fact, I’m not talking about charging for water at all, since (so far!) that hasn’t happened in Sevilla. But hey, how would you have felt if every bar we visited in Sevilla charged us 1€ per person for “service”? At the end of an evening tapeo that tends to add up. And it’s simply not Sevilla. It’s what gastrobars want Sevilla to become. And I disagree.

    2. Hi Bleu and welcome! Thank you for your comment. I’m afraid there may be a bit of a misunderstanding as I’m not singling out Paris at all (other than saying to someone else that I wouldn’t be surprised that they might charge for water there). I totally agree with you that not all customers are ideal. But it’s good to hear that you wouldn’t charge a service charge per person (which is my main beef here). Your prices for “extras” sound totally reasonable to me and I am sure you don’t just bring them to the client unasked for and then charge them later, as happens here.

      This blog post is about extra bread and “service” charges at tapas bars in Sevilla. Most – I’d even dare say none – of the bars that are charging this get people coming in and nursing one glass of wine for two hours. In fact some of them are the busiest places in town. With rapid turnover. Imagine what this means if they get 100 individual clients a day charging 1€ per client… that’s roughly an extra 35,000 euros a year for doing absolutely nothing. Which is of course why people here are doing it, and then using the excuse that “everyone else is doing it” to back them up. Easy money.

      Except it isn’t easy money because they do not realise that they are slowly – and maybe not so slowly – ruining their reputations. They are looking at a short term quick financial fix and not taking into consideration that people have long memories.

      “If you have felt cheated at some of these places then I agree with Eugene. Voice your opinion on yelp, twitter, four square, or your blog. Don’t single out the city but rather the individual bar or restaurant.”

      I am actually singling out Sevilla because this is where I have lived for 21 years. And this is a relatively recent trend that threatens something vital to this city – the whole culture of tapas and the tapeo. I already point out on my Sevilla Tapas blog which bars out of the 200 I have listed there have bread/service charges. And – as you suggested – I also talk about it on my blog. Here.

      Me? I never personally feel cheated because I always refuse to pay “service” charges anywhere, since it isn’t legal for bars to charge for this. But what about people who don’t know they don’t have to pay? It’s really crap after a nice meal of tapas – like I had the other day – after spending close to 50€ – to then be charged an extra 5€ for “bread/service”. Yes, most tourists will just pay and go without complaint. Heck, most locals pay and go. Because NOBODY likes to complain. But they often won’t go back. And they’ll whisper it to their friends. I’ve heard more “whispers” about this than I can count. Yet bar owners continue to believe they can just flaunt this in our faces and we’ll keep coming back.

      I don’t know what you do about people who take up space without ordering, other than to simply tell them after about 20 minutes that, if they don’t wish to order anything, you have other customers waiting for their table. Six people ordering two drinks between them is pretty naff.

      Thanks again for dropping by. Great to hear another viewpoint.

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